A friend of mine who lives her life as an out trans woman just posted an exchange she had with Ibis Bicycles today. They have apparently named one of their bikes "Tranny", which for a litany of reasons is NOT OK.

My friend posted this exchange she had with the company. It turns out the Scot she got an email back from, is Scot Nicol, who is actually the founder of Ibis (please excuse the poor blurring of personal info.) *Thanks to the commenter who corrected me!

This then made me curious, so I went and looked up the bike in question. So, ladies and gentlemen, here is the Tranny. It's just as bad as you think:

More infuriating, however, is the marketing copy to go along with the bike. They have to know exactly what they were doing with the name selection. The highlights are mine, taken from their website:

A "playful bike" that "blurs the lines between categories." COME ON!

Please let Ibis Cycles know this is not ok. The transphobia has got to go. They can be reached at:

Edit: This has caused a bit of a firestorm on social media, with people wondering why this company shouldn't be able to use this name. I see it as problematic for a few reasons, and please, feel free to chime in with more.

Transgender people are still fighting for basic rights in the USA. You can be fired in 32 states for being transgender. Only 18 states (CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, IA, MA, ME, MD -- effective Oct. 2014, MN, NJ, NM, NV, OR, RI, VT and WA) and D.C. currently prohibit discrimination based on gender identity.

There's more though:

40% of people who identify as transgender will attempt suicide in their lifetime

19% of transgender people will experience violence from a family member

26% of people who have lost a job due to gender identity

These are real problems faced every single day by people in our community, just living out their gender identity.